Hormone Replacement Therapy advertising: sense and nonsense on the web pages of the best-selling pharmaceuticals in Spain

BMC Public Health

Correspondence

Pablo Alonso-Coello¹  Marta Martín-Llaguno²  Elisa Chilet-Rosell³  María Teresa Ruiz-Cantero³ 

[1] CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Spain;Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre, Clinical Epidemiology and Public Health Department, Hospital Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain;Department of Audiovisual Communication and Publicity Department, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain;Preventive Medicine and Public Health Department, Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain;CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Spain;

关键词: European Union;    Hormone Replacement Therapy;    Result Page;    Bibliographic Reference;    Patient Information Leaflet;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-10-134

 received in 2009-09-03, accepted in 2010-03-16,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe balance of the benefits and risks of long term use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have been a matter of debate for decades. In Europe, HRT requires medical prescription and its advertising is only permitted when aimed at health professionals (direct to consumer advertising is allowed in some non European countries). The objective of this study is to analyse the appropriateness and quality of Internet advertising about HRT in Spain.MethodsA search was carried out on the Internet (January 2009) using the eight best-selling HRT drugs in Spain. The brand name of each drug was entered into Google's search engine. The web sites appearing on the first page of results and the corresponding companies were analysed using the European Code of Good Practice as the reference point.ResultsFive corporate web pages: none of them included bibliographic references or measures to ensure that the advertising was only accessible by health professionals. Regarding non-corporate web pages (n = 27): 41% did not include the company name or address, 44% made no distinction between patient and health professional information, 7% contained bibliographic references, 26% provided unspecific information for the use of HRT for osteoporosis and 19% included menstrual cycle regulation or boosting feminity as an indication. Two online pharmacies sold HRT drugs which could be bought online in Spain, did not include the name or contact details of the registered company, nor did they stipulate the need for a medical prescription or differentiate between patient and health professional information.ConclusionsEven though pharmaceutical companies have committed themselves to compliance with codes of good practice, deficiencies were observed regarding the identification, information and promotion of HRT medications on their web pages. Unaffected by legislation, non-corporate web pages are an ideal place for indirect HRT advertising, but they often contain misleading information. HRT can be bought online from Spain, without a medical consultation or prescription constituting a serious issue for public health. In our information society, it is the right and obligation of public health bodies to ensure that such information is not misleading.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Chilet-Rosell et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010